2494 Hawks and Harvestmen

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Herbert Spencer: "There is a principle which is a bar against all information,
which is proof against all arguments
and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance —
that principle is contempt prior to investigation."

--------------------------

Yesterday I went to Mount Peter (that sounds naughty) and joined some people to watch hawks from a state-built viewing stand. I did see two hawks. Nobody else did, and they don't seem to believe that I did. Both times I pointed, and the hawks were right there in clear sky swooping around, but no one else saw them before they dipped down behind the trees.

I don't understand.

We were up pretty high. The view was fantastic across the ridges and valleys all the way to New Jersey, but so very hazy I didn't attempt a photo.

This is the group at the hawk stand:
One of the guys heard that there was a geocache nearby. He didn't have a GPS, but he had the hint, "A Sucrets container, under a loose piece of bark, under a cedar tree, within sight of the stand". There were several cedar trees there, so all those guys in shorts were competing to be the one who found the cache, tromping through undergrowth dense with poison ivy (and likely ticks). Nobody found it.

Then we walked a bit on the Appalachian Trail (sign on the tree above us):
This was a scouting trip for a major hike planned for October, when the leaves are changing.

There were lots of mushrooms of every variety, size, and color. I guess they like all the rain we've had lately.

We saw an unusual harvestman. His body was brilliant red, legs shiny black, and he moved so fast you couldn't catch him by the hind legs, like you can with most daddy-long-legs. The guys decided that he must be poisonous because he was red. I said that harvestmen come in white, tan, yellow, brown, black, and red, just like humans, but unlike humans, none of them ever bite. I let him climb on my hand and up my arm (and down my back).

I like harvestmen. They're not at all like spiders.

--------------------

Off topic - Sherry, on The View, is currently working on a challenge - to get into shape to look and feel good in a bathing suit. In preparation, a few weeks ago they measured her on the show. Those of you who know me AND know what Sherry looks like will be amazed to know that she and I have exactly the same measurements! It blew me out of the water! (Of course, she's taller, with longer legs.)

So howcum she looks huge on the top and small and neat on the bottom, and I look exactly the opposite? The math doesn't make sense!

Sigh. Just something else I don't understand.
.